This article analyzes the use of neuroimaging in research into chronic fatigue syndrome. It reviews some works published in the 1990s and investigates a specific aspect of these studies, namely the search for a cerebral abnormality, in the form of an altered activation pattern, which could provide a pattern for diagnosis and treatment of the disease. The understanding of chronic fatigue syndrome as a disease reduced to some cerebral findings is analyzed, arguing in favor of a broader vision of this disease that includes psychosocial elements of the patient's life as opposed to entirely somatic explanations.
Chronic fatigue syndrome; Psychosocial factors; Neuroimaging